So my macbook pro (2010) was recently stolen from my apartment about a week ago, and I am looking for some help to possible track it. I have contacted the authorities, but they are pretty much useless. I do not have any gps or theft programs unfortunately, but the IT center at my school was able to provide my mac address and I also still have the receipt from the computer with all of that information. I have contacted the schools around mine and have them on the lookout for their networks. I didn't know if there was anything else I could do. I am not a computer person but from reading other posts....I do have a gmail account, itunes, and I have synced/used bluetooth with my android phone (I have a tmobile mytouch 4g as a sidenote). I don't know if any of that could be of use to somehow locate my mac....ANY help would be appreciated. I lost so much work and personal data....I'm pulling for straws at this point since it will take me awhile to get the money to buy a new one..I will be trying to do anything I can to try and track it.

As a background note....my mac was taken when we had a bunch of people over at my apartment. Given that most of the people who attended were friends (or so I thought)...I do have emails and information on most of them. Although my computer could have been taken at any point in the night, there was a time when I drove a friend home and when I went to my room to get my keys I forgot to lock my door (yes cue comments on my stupidity).....with that there were only about 6 people left at my place when this occurs, which leads me to narrow down who could have stolen my computer, since my door was locked for the majority of the night. I am also here to believe that they took it to sell/use since my printer cord (which was plugged into my printer) was found stuffed underneath my couch cushion...so they may have thought it was my charger, which was elsewhere in my room. Just the fact that I knew everyone at my apartment just makes it worse that I know the person who took my computer....even if I never see it again, I would just want any clues about finding out who did this.

Last edited by rollingstone99 on Mon Apr 25, 2011 12:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I would go change all your passwords so that further damage cant be done. If you had any saved credentials in your browser you'd hate to have this person empty your checking account as well.

Second, its a long shot but a decent idea to ask the IT group to notify you if the MAC comes up on the network, but then it seems you'd need some cooperation with law enforcement to actually get your PC back. There are certainly ways to track this stuff down but it all requires the ability to subpoena provider records to start to geographically pinpoint the person who stole your pc. It might be worth looking at the bottom of your gmail account in the "Last account activity" section to see if anything looks fishy but again... you might be able to get an IP but its likely the campus NATS and that IP is shared by thousands of students.

Unless you're a state senator it might be tough to get the local PD to give a crap and help you out. Sorry to hear about your luck.....but one lesson on this....back your data up...somewhere else......

If the person who stole your macbook is like most college kids and your desperate hit up the popular free wifi spots in town and do some monitoring, you know your mac address so thats half the battle, I would however report it to the cops. If this was me back in my college days I'd have already gone to all of the suspsects dorm rooms/apts with some pals and done a through inventory looking for it but then again I was a bit crazy in my youth. Best adivce since the item is valued at more that 1,000 buck is to report it to the police

@Veronikaqueen - even IF we could help you (chances are, we can't, and you need to report it to the authorities,) you haven't told us anything (such as where you are / were, when it was stolen) that would give us anything to go on. Unfortunately, the MAC addresss does us no good, because you / we would need to have at least SOME idea what networks it might show up on, and then be monitoring there, in the sheer hope it popped online. But again, you didn't even tell us where, in the world, you are / were when it went missing, so it's like trying to find a random grain of sand, somewhere around the globe.

I wish you well, but your request is just not usable.

~ hayabusa ~

"All men can see these tactics whereby I conquer, but what none can see is the strategy out of which victory is evolved." - Sun Tzu, 'The Art of War'

If you know the people that were there when you left, I would take a day or two in a week or every other week, go in the neighborhood and open an unsecure hot spot. *Use barnacle app for droid phone* if they are dumb enough to connect to your hotspot, barnacle will record the host that is connected including the mac address. Make the SSID name legit like Mike's resident or something.